“My Wallaby friends say that, well though he played on the 1984 tour, Mark’s finest game for Australia was against Argentina in 1983, when he shut Hugo Porta out of the game,” said Gareth Edwards in the book 100 Great Rugby Players.

Has there ever been a rugby player who has tormented Australia as much as Richie McCaw? I was contemplating this question today when I realized that not only was the answer no, but the answer was no by a good margin.

Fellow Roarer, ohtani’s jacket, once said to me: “There’s something about the Australian Open that brings out the best in tennis players. That adds to its prestige, and elevates it above the US Open and the French Open in my mind.”

The ICC recently conducted a poll asking cricket fans what the greatest one-day cricket game of all time was. The majority voted for the famous game between Australia and South Africa at Johannesburg in March 2006.

I was elated to hear, when watching the 2009 John Eales Medal, that at long last Trevor Allen was an inductee of the 2010 Hall of Fame Class, along with the reliable Andrew Slack, and the tactical Johnny Wallace.

Something has happened to the Wallabies. They’re beginning to transform and progress. This article might sound like a knee-jerk reaction to the Wallabies first win over New Zealand in over two years, but in fact it’s something I’ve sensed since their tour to South Africa.

The Wallabies have now lost ten Tests in a row against the All Blacks. After the first nine of those ten Tests it frustrated and angered me when people would say things such as ‘Deans has them on the right track’.

Andrew Slack is a deserved inductee into the Australian Rugby Union Hall of Fame Class of 2010. I think Slack would currently be remembered as one of Australia’s four greatest rugby captains (along with Farr-Jones, Eales, and Thornett).